Topic of this work is the position and role of libraries in todays technical, short-living society. Followed by the question if its still necessary to build libraries in a digital (re)production age, how to handle and filter the amount of information nowadays and how it has to be presented, printed or visualized in words and graphics. Next to this the theoretical part is focused on the history and development of libraries, its building typologies, the question how to handle and store items and is a kind of dictionary that tries to explain common expressions, trends and ‘fashion words` next to the ordinary text.

For the design part a competition program mainly focused on storage and reading facilities was taken as a functional base. As a result of the research done on building typologies and its urban situation it was modified and extended by additional facilities and rooms. Main idea was to separate the functions of national archive (NA) and national library (NL) according to its needs. The northern part because of the less of natural light is occupied by the NA and its sensitive items with special storage conditions. The southern part hosts next to reading-/ study-/ seminar-rooms of the NL also the main reading hall, orientated to the city of Prague to catch the panoramic view.

In addition to this an idea of classifying rooms and functions was picked up – fixed and changeable rooms. Multi-functionality by keeping the main function of a room. To guarantee this the changeable rooms like atriums, exhibition, media rooms and archives were located around the main rooms and allow an extension of the building by ensuring the main purposes. The library more than a place to store and preserve knowledge, a public building that has to become public again for everyone, every age. An urban defined multilevel area for different medias with different activities and kinds of quality, adjusted along external (guidelines, limits, site, etc) and internal (functions, efficiency, light, view, etc) parameters. An ‘interface’ between built environment and nature between ‘user’ and information. – Ext